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Co-operatives ‘are still a vital force'
Vietnamese co-operatives had made much progress in improving living conditions, especially in rural areas, and creating jobs, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai said here yesterday.
Hai, who was speaking at the third Patriotism Emulation Congress of the Viet Nam Co-operatives Alliance, urged co-operatives to fully utilise their economic potential.
Co-operatives have been the core of the collective economic sector in Viet Nam for more than 50 years. They operate on the voluntary participation of individuals and organisations and are particularly strong in rural areas.
Together with economic sectors run by the State, collective economic sectors are the foundation of Viet Nam's multi-sector economy.
Co-operatives enable members easier access to capital and techniques.
At the congress, the co-operatives alliance summarised the outcome of emulation movements launched five years ago to raise the effectiveness of co-operatives in alleviating poverty and building a new rural model.
"The two movements helped speed up the development of the collective economic sector with new models of large-scale co-operatives that offered jobs and improved living conditions for millions of labourers," said Hai.
Vice chairman of the alliance Nguyen Van Bien said that at present, Viet Nam had more than 18,200 co-operatives, 53 unions of co-operatives and 360,000 co-operative groups, 20 per cent higher than in 2005.
The sector created jobs for more than 12.5 million labourers in different economic fields, especially agriculture, handicrafts and aquaculture.
Moreover, Bien said, co-operatives also mobilised money from members to shift the economic structure and expand production.
For example, more than 1,000 credit funds offered loans worth a total of VND21 trillions (US$1billion). More than 80 per cent of the loans were used to help co-operative members develop agriculture and handicrafts.
The collective economic sector contributed about 5.45 per cent of the national gross domestic product, joining hands to reduce poverty rates in the last five years from 30 to 14 per cent.
However, the collective economic sector in general and the co-operatives in particular still face shortcomings. They often lack the management ability to provide close co-ordination with other co-operatives or with other sectors.
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